GOOD AFFILIATE COMPANY GUIDE
If you run a website and would like to make money by putting some affiliate commission-based advertising on it, you may notice that there are many different affiliate marketing companies.
Most companies will do all the accounting for you and tot up all the commissions from all the merchants you are with. This is good. The bad approach is to have all the merchants totted up separately, in which case you have to achieve the threshold level on EACH merchant in order to get paid!
Automatic acceptance. In my view there has to be a good reason for refusing an affiliate. I regard affiliate refusing as a very dodgy thing anyway, rather like a shop refusing to serve some customers because of the colour of their skin/hair. Therefore it's best to choose affiliate companies who will automatically accept anyone who is prepared to sell for them. It's best if this is anybrowser-compatible, contains no cookies or 1x1 gifs, preferably is without ampersands, and there is proper generic text-only option. (Text links can always be used with a banner, but not vice-versa). The more generic the code, the easier it is to implement by the affiliate.
Contract. There should be only one contract for the entire affiliate company. If affiliates are expected to read and sign a separate contract for each merchant it becomes impractical, and it would be better if the companies all had their own independent affiliate programs! You SHOULD read all the smallprint, for example to avoid really stupid things like "you agree that we shall be the exclusive merchant at your site" etc, so any extra contract-reading should be kept to a minimum. Changes in contracts should be published by e-mailing everyone, not just by changing the contract at the site, as it's unreasonable to expect affiliates to keep checking the contracts all the time just to see if they've been changed! Also, the contract should be reasonable, not long-winded, and should include reciprocity, ie not be a totally unfair one-sided setup. To see an example of the kind of thing to avoid, read the appalling bureaucratic contract of Linkshare, which is exactly the wrong way to do it!
Payments. Payments should be to an optional "payee" which is allowed to be different from the main company identity. Minimum payments are ok, but all small payments should always roll-over indefinitely until the appropriate threshold has been reached. However it is arranged and agreed, affiliates should never forfeit payments through being a bit slow or underperforming. We all have to start somewhere and it's best to show sympathy for those who are just starting.
Good communication. It's important to be able to be in contact with the people at the affiliate company. If you are an affiliate you should avoid places that will not bother to reply to your e-mail. To test this, it's best to send an interesting question to a company before joining and see if you get a proper reply.
Quality of the Merchants. There's nothing wrong with an affiliate marketing company having a few spivvy merchants on the books, after all it takes all types in business. However, it gets a bit worrying if an affiliate company is stuffed full of MLM, get rich schemes, questionable medical treatments, porno, and offers which make extravagant claims. It's best if there is a sensible balance with a reasonable ratio of reliable stable merchants and more maverick lines. Having said that, it's also best if it's not too snooty either, and allows a wide diversity.
SPAM. An affiliate company should not have a zero tolerance of spam, but should settle for the affiliate not promoting that affiliate company's merchants in any spam! In a similar way, it's reasonable for a company to expect you to agree to refrain from smoking while in their building, but it's not reasonable for a company to expect you to sign a pledge to give up smoking!
Odd rules. Whatever rules there are should be made clear, and not be arbitrary. Reasonableness is important. There should be no nasty surprises for transgression of unseen rules. Also, mistakes and imagined mistakes should be reversible and there should not be something that looks like a school black-mark record!
Affiliate recruiter bonus. An affiliate company should always have an affiliate program with itself, for the recruiting of new affiliates and also new merchants. This can take the form of bounty or second-tier commission. This encourages new people to join in. Revenue Share is best.
Long-termist reliable marketing preference. (sometimes termed SEO v PPC). An affiliate marketing company should support and encourage good reliable affiliates who create long-term prevailing dedicated pages with relevant content, rather than PPC (pay per click), spam, pop-ups, and other types of splat advertising. Quality is what matters, not quantity of impressions. We the affiliates who create solid web material that's built to last are still going to be around long after the short term silliness of splat advertising is discredited. If you're an affiliate marketing merchant, you should be looking for long term relationships, if you want to still be in business in years to come. Affiliate marketing companies who recognise this fact ahead of the rest of the field have an advantage and are likely to still be with us in ten years' time.
Expired affiliate merchant arrangements. If an affiliate merchant's affiliate program ends, it should stay recorded at the affiliate marketing company that the affiliate program WAS there. This enables affiliates to keep track of expired programs properly. Positive information about the disappearance of an affiliate program is much better than it just "disappearing" and being mysteriously absent. Also, what happens to expired links? Do they just go through and leave affiliates working for nothing? Or do they come up with "expired"? The best scheme on this is at
Clickxchange where the visitors are redirected to a page of the affiliate's choice specified in the affiliate account preferences, eg http://www.affiliate website.net/whoops.htm . Another good one is at CJ where the affiliate can review invalid links generating traffic.
Leakiness. Some affiliate marketing companies "leak like a sieve", either by having security holes in the merchant arrangements where circumvention occurs, or where there are phone numbers on the merchant sites even when visitors link through an affiliate link, or by merchants being victim to fraudulent leads. These problems can be eliminated by good practice and there is a lot to be said for road-testing the system.
All-inclusiveness. Questions of "streamlining". It's important to be fair to everyone. There are always going to be some small affiliates whose clicks and sales performance figures are going to be minimal. No-one should be "streamlined out" or in other ways prejudiced against just because they don't fit in with an elitist notion of supporting "only the top affiliates". Flat-rate percentages are best.
These are guidelines to good practice at affiliate marketing companies, as seen from the viewpoint of an affiliate. If you run an affiliate marketing company, you can check to see how your company shapes up. Don't worry if you don't pass on every score - no company I know gets everything right on this! However, some are better than others! The idea of publishing this guide to good practice is to encourage good practice and to help to avoid bad mistakes being propagated, especially where with a bit of thought and good planning, mistakes and bad practice can be avoided.
If you're considering setting up a new affiliate marketing company, this set of guidelines is a good start! Of course you've also got to keep the merchants happy, and make a profit as well! It's a market which already has some major players in it but the available market is so big that there is plenty of room for new companies to start!
Rabu, 28 Mei 2008
What's it like to be an AFFILIATE?
What's it like to be an AFFILIATE?
If you have a website, or you are thinking about setting up your own website, you might be interested to know that there are companies who are willing to pay you commissions if you bring business to their sites.
Real AFFILIATE MARKETING is based on sales, so it isn't a matter of having a lot of banner impressions or arbitrary clickthroughs, but actual sales. The more visitors your site gets, the more sales it's likely to bring to companies who you are helping to advertise.
To get involved in this, here are some useful pages to read at this site:
* Affiliate marketing companies for you to join.
Patience is of the essence! Having affiliate programs at your website is not a get rich quick scheme. But after a while it will most likely start to make some money. Best to wait a few months before expecting it to make any money, but after that, it's likely to increase. I have made quite a lot of money!
How to add affiliate links to your site:
1. Join affiliate marketing companies.
2. Join affiliate programs.
3. When you are "approved" (yes, they sometimes keep you waiting), get the special AFFILIATE CODE which is unique to your site and to the merchant.
4. Transplant the special code into the HTML source code of your website (in some appropriate context-relevant places).
5. Publish.
6. Wait with patience and eventually you might some sales.
7. Pay the cheques which arrive into the bank.
Being an affiliate is a curious thing to be, as you work for nothing on your website, but then your website works for you 168 hours per week, and after a while your accumulated efforts start to have an effect and you start to make money.
Affiliates have a culture of being mutually helpful to each other. There's plenty of "market" out there, so no ideas of being fiercely in competition. But remember that Affiliate marketing companies often have quite severe rivalry with each other. It's best if you can have good diplomatic relations with most of them, even if they don't really get on well with each other.
When being an affiliate, please do not cheat, as it brings the game into disrepute. Merchants can sometimes get upset if you send spam or otherwise damage the market.
Always read the smallprint in the contracts. If you don't like what you see, or you don't agree with what you're being asked to sign, DON'T SIGN IT!
Affiliates should never be expected to pay to join an affiliate program.
Try to avoid MLM (multi level marketing) and other schemes which have no basis in proper business (eg. pyramid schemes). Good business has satisfied customers who are happy to pay for quality service and quality products. The companies who supply them are happy to pay modest commissions for legitimate sales.
Some companies have second tier commission which means you can help other affiliates without it costing you anything. If you like that, then sign up to the link at the bottom of the page (where it says "webmasters make $$$") Also, some affiliate marketing companies are quite good on the second tier business, examples including affiliate future.
You, as an affiliate, have a free choice to sign up to many different places at the same time, and you can have a wide spread portfolio of merchants. You choose what you'd like to promote, and you can avoid things you don't like. So, however idealistic your philosophy, you'll probably find something you like and are willing to promote. There's something for everyone's taste in the world of affiliate marketing. You make the choice of what you promote. This is quite in contrast to the "inventory" splat advertising market where your site arbitrarily promotes whoever is being shovelled into the bandwidth at the time. I've found the pay is also better in the affiliate market. Some splat pop-up places were offering thirty cents per thousand silly pop-ups at the time I was making over a dollar per unique visit to my front page. The reason for this is because customers also like to have a free choice! What a surprise! ;-)
So, go on then, get your own website and join some affiliate marketing companies.
If you have a website, or you are thinking about setting up your own website, you might be interested to know that there are companies who are willing to pay you commissions if you bring business to their sites.
Real AFFILIATE MARKETING is based on sales, so it isn't a matter of having a lot of banner impressions or arbitrary clickthroughs, but actual sales. The more visitors your site gets, the more sales it's likely to bring to companies who you are helping to advertise.
To get involved in this, here are some useful pages to read at this site:
* Affiliate marketing companies for you to join.
Patience is of the essence! Having affiliate programs at your website is not a get rich quick scheme. But after a while it will most likely start to make some money. Best to wait a few months before expecting it to make any money, but after that, it's likely to increase. I have made quite a lot of money!
How to add affiliate links to your site:
1. Join affiliate marketing companies.
2. Join affiliate programs.
3. When you are "approved" (yes, they sometimes keep you waiting), get the special AFFILIATE CODE which is unique to your site and to the merchant.
4. Transplant the special code into the HTML source code of your website (in some appropriate context-relevant places).
5. Publish.
6. Wait with patience and eventually you might some sales.
7. Pay the cheques which arrive into the bank.
Being an affiliate is a curious thing to be, as you work for nothing on your website, but then your website works for you 168 hours per week, and after a while your accumulated efforts start to have an effect and you start to make money.
Affiliates have a culture of being mutually helpful to each other. There's plenty of "market" out there, so no ideas of being fiercely in competition. But remember that Affiliate marketing companies often have quite severe rivalry with each other. It's best if you can have good diplomatic relations with most of them, even if they don't really get on well with each other.
When being an affiliate, please do not cheat, as it brings the game into disrepute. Merchants can sometimes get upset if you send spam or otherwise damage the market.
Always read the smallprint in the contracts. If you don't like what you see, or you don't agree with what you're being asked to sign, DON'T SIGN IT!
Affiliates should never be expected to pay to join an affiliate program.
Try to avoid MLM (multi level marketing) and other schemes which have no basis in proper business (eg. pyramid schemes). Good business has satisfied customers who are happy to pay for quality service and quality products. The companies who supply them are happy to pay modest commissions for legitimate sales.
Some companies have second tier commission which means you can help other affiliates without it costing you anything. If you like that, then sign up to the link at the bottom of the page (where it says "webmasters make $$$") Also, some affiliate marketing companies are quite good on the second tier business, examples including affiliate future.
You, as an affiliate, have a free choice to sign up to many different places at the same time, and you can have a wide spread portfolio of merchants. You choose what you'd like to promote, and you can avoid things you don't like. So, however idealistic your philosophy, you'll probably find something you like and are willing to promote. There's something for everyone's taste in the world of affiliate marketing. You make the choice of what you promote. This is quite in contrast to the "inventory" splat advertising market where your site arbitrarily promotes whoever is being shovelled into the bandwidth at the time. I've found the pay is also better in the affiliate market. Some splat pop-up places were offering thirty cents per thousand silly pop-ups at the time I was making over a dollar per unique visit to my front page. The reason for this is because customers also like to have a free choice! What a surprise! ;-)
So, go on then, get your own website and join some affiliate marketing companies.
AFFILIATE MARKETING
AFFILIATE MARKETING
The business advantages for the Merchant explained:
If you run a company and you're looking for some online advertising, having an AFFILIATE PROGRAM is one of the best options around. The key feature is that affiliates only need paying commission for actual business which they attract to your company.
If you want your company to be able to sell online to a worldwide audience of potential customers, you need to have a website, as you might have guessed! But to really get some online interest generated, you should have an affiliate program.
With an affiliate program, thousands of independent websites will advertise your company for you and will just take their chances as to whether they do any good or not. You only need pay them if they make a profit for you.
You can have an affiliate program either independently or via one of the Affiliate marketing companies. Independent affiliate programs are generally less expensive, but you've got to find your own affiliates. For independent affiliate program software, see Affiliate tracker. For affiliate programs with affiliate marketing companies, you already have a great many affiliates looking to sign up to your program as soon as it is announced. You should shop around and compare the deals on offer at different Affiliate marketing companies. They vary considerably, in price and performance and quality of good management. Unlike affiliates, the affiliate marketing companies need to be paid on an ongoing fee basis usually, and you have to budget for this in the long term. An affiliate program is a long term investment, not just a quick flash in the pan kind a a fly'b'night kind of a thing. If you want quality affiliates, be patient, as it all takes a while to build up. Some of the companies I advertise have been here years!
One of the old problems with advertising has classically been the fact that only half your advertising is doing any good, and you can't find out which half it is! But now you can. With affiliate marketing program, you get huge great files of data about which of the affiliates are doing any good, and which products are selling well, and how the cost of the scheme is paying for itself. If you've made the wise choice of selecting "payment per performance" you are only paying for actual business which makes a profit, and you're not paying for loads of silly splat advertising pop-ups which annoy people and don't bring many sales. The affiliate business is in stark contrast to such ideas as sending spam as a marketing effort.
* An affiliate program is a long term operation. Good affiliates are attracted to long term affiliate programs.
* Try to avoid making your affiliates sign contracts that are too long-winded and restrictive. Affiliates are a funny set of folk to deal with and some get upset by too much legal stuff in the contracts.
* Avoid signing any "exclusivity" clause yourself! If an affiliate marketing company expects you to sign such a thing, beware! Go with somewhere that has an open policy. As well as allowing you to move at some time, this also allows you to have more than one affiliate marketing company working for you at the same time.
* Don't worry where the affiliates live. Their websites are omnipresent and are like radio stations on the Long Wave which can be picked up on receivers worldwide. It doesn't matter where the affiliates live, but where the VISITORS live.
* Provide plenty of good shpiel! Many good affiliates are keen to tell the world all about your company history and the products you have and what they are like. Text is good! Some companies have provided huge amounts of text material and have seen this turned into an affiliate Feature here! (The shpiel is best if it's still going to be true in years to come).
* If you have a corporate makeover, don't expect all the affiliates to change all the stuff overnight. It'll be months before it gets sorted out. In any event, always have some generic banners available, rather than all flashy offers.
* Customer testimonials are good. If you have some, written by customers, send them in! Also, some companies have the double edged distinction of having an active affiliate as a customer. This can result in a customer testimonial being written from personal experience by the affiliate. MOST of these are generally positive about the merchant!
* You can talk to your affiliates. Good diplomacy is good for business!
The business advantages for the Merchant explained:
If you run a company and you're looking for some online advertising, having an AFFILIATE PROGRAM is one of the best options around. The key feature is that affiliates only need paying commission for actual business which they attract to your company.
If you want your company to be able to sell online to a worldwide audience of potential customers, you need to have a website, as you might have guessed! But to really get some online interest generated, you should have an affiliate program.
With an affiliate program, thousands of independent websites will advertise your company for you and will just take their chances as to whether they do any good or not. You only need pay them if they make a profit for you.
You can have an affiliate program either independently or via one of the Affiliate marketing companies. Independent affiliate programs are generally less expensive, but you've got to find your own affiliates. For independent affiliate program software, see Affiliate tracker. For affiliate programs with affiliate marketing companies, you already have a great many affiliates looking to sign up to your program as soon as it is announced. You should shop around and compare the deals on offer at different Affiliate marketing companies. They vary considerably, in price and performance and quality of good management. Unlike affiliates, the affiliate marketing companies need to be paid on an ongoing fee basis usually, and you have to budget for this in the long term. An affiliate program is a long term investment, not just a quick flash in the pan kind a a fly'b'night kind of a thing. If you want quality affiliates, be patient, as it all takes a while to build up. Some of the companies I advertise have been here years!
One of the old problems with advertising has classically been the fact that only half your advertising is doing any good, and you can't find out which half it is! But now you can. With affiliate marketing program, you get huge great files of data about which of the affiliates are doing any good, and which products are selling well, and how the cost of the scheme is paying for itself. If you've made the wise choice of selecting "payment per performance" you are only paying for actual business which makes a profit, and you're not paying for loads of silly splat advertising pop-ups which annoy people and don't bring many sales. The affiliate business is in stark contrast to such ideas as sending spam as a marketing effort.
* An affiliate program is a long term operation. Good affiliates are attracted to long term affiliate programs.
* Try to avoid making your affiliates sign contracts that are too long-winded and restrictive. Affiliates are a funny set of folk to deal with and some get upset by too much legal stuff in the contracts.
* Avoid signing any "exclusivity" clause yourself! If an affiliate marketing company expects you to sign such a thing, beware! Go with somewhere that has an open policy. As well as allowing you to move at some time, this also allows you to have more than one affiliate marketing company working for you at the same time.
* Don't worry where the affiliates live. Their websites are omnipresent and are like radio stations on the Long Wave which can be picked up on receivers worldwide. It doesn't matter where the affiliates live, but where the VISITORS live.
* Provide plenty of good shpiel! Many good affiliates are keen to tell the world all about your company history and the products you have and what they are like. Text is good! Some companies have provided huge amounts of text material and have seen this turned into an affiliate Feature here! (The shpiel is best if it's still going to be true in years to come).
* If you have a corporate makeover, don't expect all the affiliates to change all the stuff overnight. It'll be months before it gets sorted out. In any event, always have some generic banners available, rather than all flashy offers.
* Customer testimonials are good. If you have some, written by customers, send them in! Also, some companies have the double edged distinction of having an active affiliate as a customer. This can result in a customer testimonial being written from personal experience by the affiliate. MOST of these are generally positive about the merchant!
* You can talk to your affiliates. Good diplomacy is good for business!
What all this AFFILIATE stuff means for the customer
What all this AFFILIATE stuff means for the customer
You know from your own experience that companies tend to bombard you with commercial advertising, and it can be bewildering, a nuisance, and to some extent it seems to assume you are some kind of a stereotypical "consumer", maybe in the way an angler might assume all fish are of the type which are going to be lured and enticed by a standard type maggot! My own opinion, as an affiliate, is that the age of hard sell is dead, and that customers should be considered to be people who can make their own minds up if given the choice.
An AFFILIATE is someone who gets paid commission to bring business to companies. Don't worry, the commission is not paid by you, it's paid by the companies, as part of their advertising budget. So, instead of shops advertising on the television, in newspapers, and by printing out leaflets and putting them inside the newspaper, or sticking business cards in telephone boxes, or making nuisance telesales calls, they can advertise online by affiliate programs. The big difference with affiliate programs is that because of all the computers involved it's possible for the companies to tell precisely which affiliates are doing any good, and so they only need to pay for advertising which is actually worthwhile, thus saving expense and waste and nuisance. This means you receive less bumf, and yet can shop where you like and choose what you want to buy. Some affiliates (myself included) take the time and trouble to describe the companies and make personal comment in reviews on pages before you go and visit them online yourself. The advertising is by your choice, not in your face. This is SELECT ADVERTISING, not SPLAT ADVERTISING. I've found it works quite well. Customers like it too. Buying via an affiliate site does not cost you any more than going direct, and sometimes it's cheaper to buy online rather than on the phone or going directly. Companies save money in their overheads.
As a potential online buyer you'll also need to understand about the issues of the safety and security of buying online.
It's also worth knowing that when you see a dedicated affiliate page, it's not by the company that's selling to you, but by the affiliate. In my way of doing this, I say things up front that are true rather than simply supporting the companies! So, I say both good and bad about places, and let you decide.
An affiliate wears no uniform and can equally advertise many different companies and viewpoints at the same time. This encourages fair competition. We don't sign exclusive deals, so you'll see competing companies featured at the same site.
It's quite usual for an affiliate to give away loads of helpful advice, and to have pages of useful information. This all helps to make the online world interesting.
As well as choosing where you buy, you can also choose which affiliates you'd like to support. You can spot an affiliate link by the way it goes to some strange address with odd codes in so it can be tracked properly. Affiliates should not need to hide, and I make a point of telling you in advance which links are affiliate links, and usually which Affiliate marketing companies they are with.
When choosing affiliates you like, my advice is to try to avoid clicking on annoying pop-ups, and
never buy from spam. Your favoured affiliates should be doing you favours, not annoying you!
I like to see fair play, and I am one of many affiliates worldwide.
You know from your own experience that companies tend to bombard you with commercial advertising, and it can be bewildering, a nuisance, and to some extent it seems to assume you are some kind of a stereotypical "consumer", maybe in the way an angler might assume all fish are of the type which are going to be lured and enticed by a standard type maggot! My own opinion, as an affiliate, is that the age of hard sell is dead, and that customers should be considered to be people who can make their own minds up if given the choice.
An AFFILIATE is someone who gets paid commission to bring business to companies. Don't worry, the commission is not paid by you, it's paid by the companies, as part of their advertising budget. So, instead of shops advertising on the television, in newspapers, and by printing out leaflets and putting them inside the newspaper, or sticking business cards in telephone boxes, or making nuisance telesales calls, they can advertise online by affiliate programs. The big difference with affiliate programs is that because of all the computers involved it's possible for the companies to tell precisely which affiliates are doing any good, and so they only need to pay for advertising which is actually worthwhile, thus saving expense and waste and nuisance. This means you receive less bumf, and yet can shop where you like and choose what you want to buy. Some affiliates (myself included) take the time and trouble to describe the companies and make personal comment in reviews on pages before you go and visit them online yourself. The advertising is by your choice, not in your face. This is SELECT ADVERTISING, not SPLAT ADVERTISING. I've found it works quite well. Customers like it too. Buying via an affiliate site does not cost you any more than going direct, and sometimes it's cheaper to buy online rather than on the phone or going directly. Companies save money in their overheads.
As a potential online buyer you'll also need to understand about the issues of the safety and security of buying online.
It's also worth knowing that when you see a dedicated affiliate page, it's not by the company that's selling to you, but by the affiliate. In my way of doing this, I say things up front that are true rather than simply supporting the companies! So, I say both good and bad about places, and let you decide.
An affiliate wears no uniform and can equally advertise many different companies and viewpoints at the same time. This encourages fair competition. We don't sign exclusive deals, so you'll see competing companies featured at the same site.
It's quite usual for an affiliate to give away loads of helpful advice, and to have pages of useful information. This all helps to make the online world interesting.
As well as choosing where you buy, you can also choose which affiliates you'd like to support. You can spot an affiliate link by the way it goes to some strange address with odd codes in so it can be tracked properly. Affiliates should not need to hide, and I make a point of telling you in advance which links are affiliate links, and usually which Affiliate marketing companies they are with.
When choosing affiliates you like, my advice is to try to avoid clicking on annoying pop-ups, and
never buy from spam. Your favoured affiliates should be doing you favours, not annoying you!
I like to see fair play, and I am one of many affiliates worldwide.
AFFILIATE MARKETING EXPLAINED
AFFILIATE MARKETING EXPLAINED
Affiliate Programs explained in ways which everyone can understand
An easy explanation of AFFILIATE PROGRAMS would be best if I explain it from different points of view. Affiliate marketing seems quite different according to how you approach it. Trees are oxygen generators, scenery, timber, or home, depending on whether you're an ecologist, tourist, lumberjack, or squirrel. With that in mind, and to find out if you're a squirrel, here are some perspectives from which the affiliate business can be viewed:
[profile stereotypes begin!]
1. If you're The Customer, you're probably RIGHT, and it would be nice if when you're wheeling your customer choice wagon or virtual shopping cart around, people gave you some respect for having the good sense to make a wise choice in your buying. It's your money, and you have the right to choose where to spend it. Don't you think the companies should acknowledge you for having some intelligence? What kind of a statistically normal person do they think you are?! Wouldn't it be good if "the market" was more customer friendly? When you're buying it's fun because you get to make free choices and exercise your buying power, but you have to be careful. Buying from the shops and buying from private advertisers and from anyone who has a "for sale" label stuck on something, it's all very well, but good sense is the key to customer satisfaction. Then along comes the option of BUYING ONLINE. Is that risky? Or is it safe? Do you trust the advertisements? And how do you buy online? Will you need a shopping trolley with tank tracks, caterpillar tracks, or will a 4x4 drive be good enough for the terrain?
2. If you're a merchant, a proprietor, a shopkeeper, a company director, someone with business premises and a commercial enterprise, or a marketing executive in charge of the publicity and sales of a company, or generally any kind of business person with the idea of making money selling products of any kind, and you're looking at the possibility of selling online, advertising online, and increasing your market share and all that corporate stuff which ends up with a "bottom line" of actually making money.
3. Now for affiliates, no previously existing physical business is required, nor much capital outlay. If you've got a website, or you're thinking about having a website, and you would like your website to make money, then maybe this is more your kind of thing. You know people like to go surfing around the Internet and it's good when they visit your website. "Your website" could be any sort of website about anything, and yet it's in essence a set of web pages existing in cyberspace, existing in a virtual world, waiting for people to come along and visit. Opportunity knocks, but in cyberspace no-one can hear it squeak, except for those who have the lobes. Affiliate Marketing is a way of your website making money, honestly, without too much fuss, in a virtual world.
4. If you run an affiliate marketing company, good luck with your ISP being saved from having any downtime.
Affiliate Programs explained in ways which everyone can understand
An easy explanation of AFFILIATE PROGRAMS would be best if I explain it from different points of view. Affiliate marketing seems quite different according to how you approach it. Trees are oxygen generators, scenery, timber, or home, depending on whether you're an ecologist, tourist, lumberjack, or squirrel. With that in mind, and to find out if you're a squirrel, here are some perspectives from which the affiliate business can be viewed:
[profile stereotypes begin!]
1. If you're The Customer, you're probably RIGHT, and it would be nice if when you're wheeling your customer choice wagon or virtual shopping cart around, people gave you some respect for having the good sense to make a wise choice in your buying. It's your money, and you have the right to choose where to spend it. Don't you think the companies should acknowledge you for having some intelligence? What kind of a statistically normal person do they think you are?! Wouldn't it be good if "the market" was more customer friendly? When you're buying it's fun because you get to make free choices and exercise your buying power, but you have to be careful. Buying from the shops and buying from private advertisers and from anyone who has a "for sale" label stuck on something, it's all very well, but good sense is the key to customer satisfaction. Then along comes the option of BUYING ONLINE. Is that risky? Or is it safe? Do you trust the advertisements? And how do you buy online? Will you need a shopping trolley with tank tracks, caterpillar tracks, or will a 4x4 drive be good enough for the terrain?
2. If you're a merchant, a proprietor, a shopkeeper, a company director, someone with business premises and a commercial enterprise, or a marketing executive in charge of the publicity and sales of a company, or generally any kind of business person with the idea of making money selling products of any kind, and you're looking at the possibility of selling online, advertising online, and increasing your market share and all that corporate stuff which ends up with a "bottom line" of actually making money.
3. Now for affiliates, no previously existing physical business is required, nor much capital outlay. If you've got a website, or you're thinking about having a website, and you would like your website to make money, then maybe this is more your kind of thing. You know people like to go surfing around the Internet and it's good when they visit your website. "Your website" could be any sort of website about anything, and yet it's in essence a set of web pages existing in cyberspace, existing in a virtual world, waiting for people to come along and visit. Opportunity knocks, but in cyberspace no-one can hear it squeak, except for those who have the lobes. Affiliate Marketing is a way of your website making money, honestly, without too much fuss, in a virtual world.
4. If you run an affiliate marketing company, good luck with your ISP being saved from having any downtime.
AFFILIATE MARKETING COMPANIES
Affiliate Programs with
AFFILIATE MARKETING COMPANIES
(Affiliate Marketing Solutions Providers)
The resources of affiliate marketing companies, companies who offer affiliate commission to websites who link to them and to their merchants who are advertised. It all helps to fund the site. What Is an Affiliate Program? What makes a good affiliate company?
Are you into this too?
If so you might like to see some of these companies:
Commission Junction, UK affiliates.com, ClickBank, TradeDoubler, Clickxchange, affiliate Window, Affiliate Future, Affinity Arc, Income Access, DGM Australia, Paid On Results, Zanox, OMG UK, Buy.at, Share-A-Sale, WebGains, Share Results, PrimeQ, Silvertab/affiliate marketing, altogether ads, r.o.eye, stream20, phd, millions club, leadhound, kowabunga, affiliate tracker, assistme.es, elogicom, ultra affiliate software, casino profit share, affiliateshop, plugingo
linkshare, befree.
And others to be added.
There are some very good independent affiliate programs, for example Allposters
Also see public ads, affiliate rocket, and xyroth's list of affiliate companies.
There is an affiliate marketing company which we're sadly having to avoid signing up to as they are cybersquatting a domain which is a confusing mis-spelling of a well-known affiliate marketing company. Of course if they stop doing that and start being reasonable, they might get some more business!
All enquiries welcome, but please note that any sign-here agreements with anything approximating to "You the affiliate site agrees that we are to be the exclusive of seller of widgets (or whatever) on your site and that no other seller of widgets may advertise widgets on your site" won't be signed-up to, as that would be anti-competitive. This site puts the customers' interests first, so let's not have any exclusivist stuff here!
And now some more Affiliate Company BANNERS...
Affiliates! When joining affiliate programs:
Always read all the smallprint! If items in the smallprint appear to be unfair, quiz the company about it. If there's no amicable agreement, don't sign up! When creating links, see if there are any "&" symbols in the code. If there are, then if you are using Microsoft Frontpage / Frontpage Express, then CHECK THE LINKS! Some variants of Frontpage / Frontpage Express change "&" into "&" which would normally be ok, but in this case means that although the links seem to work, you might not get paid! However, a quick check of the HTML source code will determine whether your links are good.
Watch out for cookies, as some systems assume you won't mind. If you DO mind (I DO mind!), use a double-isolated system if necessary.
Test schemes you sign up for, so you know you are describing them properly.
See affiliate marketing company guide to good practice.
Yes, you should have a website! Having your own website is essential to being an affiliate. Besides the good chance that you could make a lot of money, it's also FUN, and you have freedom of speech to have a say and be heard around the world! Also see the helpful introduction: What's it like to be an affiliate?
It's a good idea to have an affiliate recruiter affiliate program.
Experience has shown that being an affiliate and persisting in the business of affiliate marketing is a way to get rich, but it's not "quick", and patience is of the essence.
AFFILIATE MARKETING COMPANIES
(Affiliate Marketing Solutions Providers)
The resources of affiliate marketing companies, companies who offer affiliate commission to websites who link to them and to their merchants who are advertised. It all helps to fund the site. What Is an Affiliate Program? What makes a good affiliate company?
Are you into this too?
If so you might like to see some of these companies:
Commission Junction, UK affiliates.com, ClickBank, TradeDoubler, Clickxchange, affiliate Window, Affiliate Future, Affinity Arc, Income Access, DGM Australia, Paid On Results, Zanox, OMG UK, Buy.at, Share-A-Sale, WebGains, Share Results, PrimeQ, Silvertab/affiliate marketing, altogether ads, r.o.eye, stream20, phd, millions club, leadhound, kowabunga, affiliate tracker, assistme.es, elogicom, ultra affiliate software, casino profit share, affiliateshop, plugingo
linkshare, befree.
And others to be added.
There are some very good independent affiliate programs, for example Allposters
Also see public ads, affiliate rocket, and xyroth's list of affiliate companies.
There is an affiliate marketing company which we're sadly having to avoid signing up to as they are cybersquatting a domain which is a confusing mis-spelling of a well-known affiliate marketing company. Of course if they stop doing that and start being reasonable, they might get some more business!
All enquiries welcome, but please note that any sign-here agreements with anything approximating to "You the affiliate site agrees that we are to be the exclusive of seller of widgets (or whatever) on your site and that no other seller of widgets may advertise widgets on your site" won't be signed-up to, as that would be anti-competitive. This site puts the customers' interests first, so let's not have any exclusivist stuff here!
And now some more Affiliate Company BANNERS...
Affiliates! When joining affiliate programs:
Always read all the smallprint! If items in the smallprint appear to be unfair, quiz the company about it. If there's no amicable agreement, don't sign up! When creating links, see if there are any "&" symbols in the code. If there are, then if you are using Microsoft Frontpage / Frontpage Express, then CHECK THE LINKS! Some variants of Frontpage / Frontpage Express change "&" into "&" which would normally be ok, but in this case means that although the links seem to work, you might not get paid! However, a quick check of the HTML source code will determine whether your links are good.
Watch out for cookies, as some systems assume you won't mind. If you DO mind (I DO mind!), use a double-isolated system if necessary.
Test schemes you sign up for, so you know you are describing them properly.
See affiliate marketing company guide to good practice.
Yes, you should have a website! Having your own website is essential to being an affiliate. Besides the good chance that you could make a lot of money, it's also FUN, and you have freedom of speech to have a say and be heard around the world! Also see the helpful introduction: What's it like to be an affiliate?
It's a good idea to have an affiliate recruiter affiliate program.
Experience has shown that being an affiliate and persisting in the business of affiliate marketing is a way to get rich, but it's not "quick", and patience is of the essence.
AFFILIATE PROGRAM
What is an
AFFILIATE PROGRAM?
An AFFILIATE PROGRAM (sometimes termed an Associate Program) is a means by which companies may advertise on websites other than their own. http://www.hafriliando.blogspot.com/ makes money by getting paid commission if you buy via links on this site. If you have a website you can make money like this too. You may take on advertising as if you were a newspaper or a tv station! You get paid on commission, ie you get paid on results. It doesn't cost you to join, and if anyone buys stuff via links on your website, you make money! Interested? If you are a business you can get a lot of independent websites to advertise you, and if they don't sell anything you don't have to pay them! Also, if you want to recruit a few thousand independent webmasters, you haven't got to negotiate with them all because affiliate marketing companies act as middlemen and will soon find you plenty of affiliates. Take a look - shop around!
Other notes about AFFILIATE LINKS:
You can tell if a link is an affiliate link by seeing what sort of stuff is in the URL (Internet address) it's going to. If there are a lot of numbers and codes, it's almost certainly an affiliate link. Don't worry, though. You pay the same whether it's an affiliate link or not. Plus, if it IS an affiliate link, and it's from THIS SITE, it helps me stay in business and make money by running this site!
Some examples of affiliate programs can be seen at the Shopping Portal. And some examples of affiliate marketing companies can be seen at the page termed "affiliate marketing companies ". That was quite a good explanation of affiliate stuff! Yes I thought so too! But it was slightly muddled up and possibly a bit confusing, so I'm going to have a go at explaining about affiliate marketing in a different way to make it easier to understand. See Affiliate Marketing Explained
(easier, less mixed up version).
AFFILIATE PROGRAM?
An AFFILIATE PROGRAM (sometimes termed an Associate Program) is a means by which companies may advertise on websites other than their own. http://www.hafriliando.blogspot.com/ makes money by getting paid commission if you buy via links on this site. If you have a website you can make money like this too. You may take on advertising as if you were a newspaper or a tv station! You get paid on commission, ie you get paid on results. It doesn't cost you to join, and if anyone buys stuff via links on your website, you make money! Interested? If you are a business you can get a lot of independent websites to advertise you, and if they don't sell anything you don't have to pay them! Also, if you want to recruit a few thousand independent webmasters, you haven't got to negotiate with them all because affiliate marketing companies act as middlemen and will soon find you plenty of affiliates. Take a look - shop around!
Other notes about AFFILIATE LINKS:
You can tell if a link is an affiliate link by seeing what sort of stuff is in the URL (Internet address) it's going to. If there are a lot of numbers and codes, it's almost certainly an affiliate link. Don't worry, though. You pay the same whether it's an affiliate link or not. Plus, if it IS an affiliate link, and it's from THIS SITE, it helps me stay in business and make money by running this site!
Some examples of affiliate programs can be seen at the Shopping Portal. And some examples of affiliate marketing companies can be seen at the page termed "affiliate marketing companies ". That was quite a good explanation of affiliate stuff! Yes I thought so too! But it was slightly muddled up and possibly a bit confusing, so I'm going to have a go at explaining about affiliate marketing in a different way to make it easier to understand. See Affiliate Marketing Explained
(easier, less mixed up version).
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